Any Protest issue

[NCASAUmp]

I agree completely. I've never umped ASA but I read through most of the rule book when I joined an ASA league. It is much more exact.
I really HATE the fact that they mixed the slow pitch, fast pitch and modified rules into the same rule book. That's just a source for confusion.

But they're VERY clearly labeled...

 

[chiefgator]

Without trying to get into bashing one association over another, I've found that USSSA tends to "assume" that everyone knows exactly what they mean. I've found that their ruleset has a lot of holes big enough to drive a truck through. As an umpire, I find this to be quite frustrating, as leaving too much to individual interpretation tends to create an environment of inconsistency, and it sets umpires up to fail. It's even written in their rules for pitching that umpires shouldn't get too caught up in the details. Wait... What?!

ASA, on the other hand, is much more deliberate in what they say (or sometimes what they don't say) when writing their rules. Their rules, while requiring a bit of experience with some "legalese," are a lot more airtight than other rulesets. It creates a much more favorable environment for all 40,000+ umpires across the US to become consistent with each other.

As a USSSA ump and a former ASA ump, I cannot agree more. Utrip drives me crazy with some of the gaping holes. Hell, most USSSA umps cannot agree what "3 feet of arc" actually means...

Then again, ASA has always driven me crazy as I feel they over officiate sometimes. They have gotten a little better the last few years, however (removal of the Legal Bat List, removal of the two layers of tape, etc...).


Now, back to the OP:

The key to this and any protest is the wording of the protest. If the protest is written that states: " The umpire had a misapplication of the rule by declaring a force out", you have a case.

If you say: "Umpire missed the call, the runner was clearly safe" Now you are talking a judgement, and not protestable...


Personally I feel that if everything happened they way it was stated, I would send R3 back to 3B, declare the batter OUT on the catch(or IFF) and roll from there. No matter what, somebody is not gonna be happy. If I felt there was no play on R3, then I may allow the run to stand. Would have had to see it from that point.